laws

"Third-wave feminism" is a catchy yet contested term for the ideas and activism of young North American women. Lara Karaian, Allyson Mitchell and Lisa Rundle created an anthology that reflects the issues and experiences of these women. Their book, Turbo Chicks, (Sumach Press, 2001) challenges the image of young women as apathetic, apolitical dupes of an anti-feminist backlash. Instead, the contributors to Turbo Chicks present a lively, intriguing series of opinions and perspectives which are by turns thoughtful, provocative, funny, angry and poignant.

The federal government wants you to mark April 17, 2002 on your calendar. On that day, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will turn 20. There will be ceremonies on Parliament Hill, academic conferences and media retrospectives commemorating this milestone in Canada's constitutional history.

Sunlight twinkles on the water as waves cover the rocks, then recede, and then engulf them again. The light breeze is fresh and the day welcoming. Surroundings are resort-like, with beaches, green playgrounds and tiny, ivy-covered houses.

"Open?" I inquire. "Yes, the water is considered safe to swim in," explains my born-and-raised-in-Toronto companion. "I wouldn't go in there though."

Still, many barefoot and water-winged children laugh and play at one end of the beach.

Now that Canada has a government in which 50 percent of cabinet ministers are women, feminist expectations are running high.

At the top of any feminist wish list will be initiatives to repair the damage done under former prime minister Stephen Harper, a decade that a featured a series of program assaults that set back advancements on equality in Canada.

What follows are some policy initiatives that feminists will be looking to the new Liberal government to undertake, in the short term, to ameliorate some of the damage that has been done.

In light of a new documentary celebrating Hugh Hefner as the grandfather of the sexual revolution, feminists might be wondering how mainstream heterosexual pornography has evolved since Playboy was launched in 1953.

In July, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Justice announced several revisions to the now infamous Shia Personal Status Law. The law, signed by President Hamid Karzai in April, contains 249 articles regulating marriage and family life for the country’s Shia minority, who account for an estimated 20 to 30 percent of the population.